Hopefully you’ve been seeing news about the Seattle Square pop up on your favorite blogs, but if not, here’s a peek at some of the most recent ones:

(p.s. don’t forget about the blogger contest with great prizes!)

Flea Market Zone: Sunny Seattle Market Opening, July 20

Pioneer Squares: Win Win and Win, the Launch of the Seattle Square, July 18

Got Craft – Things to do Seattle Square, July 18

Confessions of a Laundry Faerie: Seattle Square, July 17

Pacific Standard: Bring Out Your Junk, July 17

The Green Chair Project: Visit us for Seattle Square at Occidental Park, July 16

Cornichon: To Market to Market, July 16

Ciao!: Seattle Square Inaugurating This Saturday, July 16

CakeSpy: Seattle Square Brings Sweetness to Pioneer Square, July 14

A full list of blog posts are also listed on the Press page. If we missed you, I’m so sorry – please shoot us an email!

We’ve have received a lot of great press about our Saturday Market and our fabulous vendors.

Check it some of the links:

Seattle PI: With Elliott Bay Books Gone, Pioneer Square Tries to Shake a Bad Reputation, July 19

Seattle Times: Market Hopes to Reinvigorate Area, July 17

The Stranger: Line Out – Pioneer Snare: Occidental Park’s Summer Music Series , July 16

KOMO: New Outdoor Market Launches Saturday, July 16

The Seattle Times: Retail Report – Pioneer Square Supporters Debuting Outdoor Market Saturday, July 15

Daily Candy: Seattle Events + Diversions, July 15

Seatle Met: Wear What When – Seattle Square Market, July 12

Seattle Magazine: Seattle Square Coming to Pioneer Square, July 9

KOMO: Downtown Seattle – New Outdoor Market Coming to Pioneer Square, June 30

For a complete list of links that will be updated weekly, check out our new Press page.

I first saw Coffee Purse at the Urban Craft Uprising and immediately fell in love with her stuff. Her slogan is “handmade by your local barista,” which is just so perfect for her product (and background). Check it out:

I don’t know if you guys are the same as me, but I love reading about the artist’s process. As part of the application, we ask them to talk about their production process. I’m cutting out a lot of her steps, but check out a few of them:

1) Calling and emailing coffee importers to find jute coffee sacks.

6) Sewing the jute together making sure fine attention is paid toward durability.

10) Research information on the estates, farms, organizations, certifications, and locations of the coffee sacks so they have a unique story to tell the owner.

If #10 in her process isn’t the coolest thing, I don’t know what is.

Each item at Coffee Purse is unique, from the weave to the print and even the distressing from transfer. Imperfections are common and of course make them one of a kind. Sizes vary depending on the original bag they were cut from.

Go fashionably green with this reclaimed item!

The Green Chair Project is a partnership that supports Seattle’s artist community while simultaneously encouraging environmental responsibility. The multiple facets of their organization include artist studios, an eco-friendly gift shop, and a community workspace for workshops and small gatherings.

The Green Chair Project’s mission includes providing and selling unique eco-friendly gifts that reflect environmental integrity, to give back to the community through personal involvement and financial contributions, and to educate and inspire the community through the act of sustainable entrepreneurship. The Green Chair Project will continue to obtain its mission through hosting workshops that educate and inspire the community, supporting Seattle’s local eco-friendly artists by providing them with studios and sustainable work materials, and running a gift shop that sells eco-friendly goods.

The amount of garbage disposed by the city of Seattle in 2009 was 351,689 tons compared to 394,748 tons in 2008; this was an 11% decrease in the amount of annual waste (City of Seattle’s 2009 Recycling Rate Report). The Green Chair Project would like to continue to promote environmental responsibility by educating the community about how salvaged materials can be used to make everyday goods and artwork. In the near future The Green Chair Project hopes to incorporate a store that sells salvaged materials and supplies for low costs to artists, promoting environmental responsibility and inspiring creativity.

(I am totally digging the painted vinyl cuffs)

Good news: In addition to all of the food you can find at the market and at local neighborhood businesses, many bars and restaurants have signed on to take part in a coordinated Happy Hour from 4pm – 6pm every Saturday to show their support of the market. All you have to do is show proof that you were at the market (with either a receipt or a flyer).

The following are businesses that have signed on:

Central Saloon
207 1st Ave S
206-622-0209

Collin’s Pub
526 2nd Ave S
(206) 623 1016

Fado
801 1st Ave
(206) 264 2700

Fuel: Sports, Eats, and Beats
206-405-FUEL
Mon – Sat 11:30am – 2am, Sun open @ 9am

FX McRory’s
419 Occidental Ave S
206-623-4800
Complicated hours — see website

Ibiza Dinner Club
528 2nd Ave S
(206) 381 9090

J & M Cafe
201 1st Ave S
206-467-2666

Last Supper Club
124 S Washington St
(206) 748 9975

McCoy’s Firehouse Bar + Grill
173 S Washington St
(206) 652 5797

Merchants Café
109 Yesler Way
(206) 935 7625

Saké Nomi
76 S Washington
(206) 467 SAKE

Tiki Bob’s Cantina
166 S King St
(206) 382 8454

Trinity Nightclub
111 Yesler Way
(206) 447 4140

I have worn a number of different hats in my life but an exceedingly large portion of them have been bowlers! To encapsulate my experiences I am an artist delving into natural science, a comic book illustrator, a sculptor and a bodger. My influences range from Charles Darwin to H.P. Lovecraft to Clement Ader. As a small child I watched 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and fell head first into the waters of Steampunk, from which I have yet to resurface.

You tell me — if you were going through vendor applications, and you saw the following description, would you even hesitate to accept them to your flea market?

Steampunk rayguns- metal found object sculptures inspired by victorian and neo-victorian design and science fiction
Potted anomalies- strange creatures in glass jars.  Inspired by the strange offerings of Sideshows
Prints of natural science illustration watercolors, plus one of an airship.

Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/tinplatestudios

Kitchen Ink is an artistic endeavor nurtured and flourishing under the keen eyes of Rosin Bean James. Since the early days making scrap patches in the kitchen of a communal house in Oakland California, these goods and their maker have traveled to the far corners of the continents to bring you delightfully playful and refreshingly sinister embelishments at craft fairs, demonstrations, and concerts.

There’s no telling how they’ll get there, but once they do you are sure to find something delightfully unique amongst stacks of buried treasure. We pride ourselves on continuously providing fresh, unique hand made goods to the creative craft hungry masses.

Kitchen Ink creates patches, baby clothes, hand made panties, adult clothing and stationary. They specialize in unearthing images from the depths of centuries past to supply you with variety of unique wearable art. Through this recollected imagery, they illustrate our everyday lives with nostalgia, passion, a reverence for times past and a taste of bittersweet longing.

All of their work is done by hand on recycled or sustainable materials. They concentrate on supporting others to mend and create with the simplicity of their own two hands.

Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/KitchenInk

Let’s Talk Downtown, who thinks that ‘being a square is cool,’ made a good point on their site today:

The Seattle Square-goers also get a rockin’ happy hour deal at Pioneer Square bars and free parking compliments of Diamond Parking and the Merrill Place Garage.

I’d prefer not to drive. Fair enough. Pioneer Square just so happens to be one of the city’s most-accessible neighborhoods – check out Commute Seattle to see how you can light rail, ferry, bus and bike to your heart’s content!

So to clarify, Merrill Place Garage is offering free parking if you can show that you were at the market (a receipt or a flyer). If you’re a vendor, Diamond Parking is offering free parking directly next to Occidental Square Park (you get a pass when you check in on Saturday).

But the website said it perfectly when they said that Pioneer Square is “one of the city’s most accessible neighborhoods.” Pioneer Square’s bus tunnel is only two blocks from the market — light rail and the free bus system downtown come through there regularly. Give Commute Seattle a try and see just how easy it is to get to our neighborhood.

Tako Fibers sells handmade crewel embroidery kits. The kits come with everything that you need to make your own piece of art – a screenprinted pattern, a hoop, wool tapestry yarn, a needle, detailed instructions, and a little book (written by me!) that explains how to do each stitch in detail. Inspired by “yarn art” from the 60′s and 70′s, these kits incorporate texture and color with fun, original illustrations.

How is Emily inspired?

After searching my sketchbooks, I pick out a design that I think would look good as a piece of embroidery art. I make a silkscreen out of that pattern and hand print it onto cotton hopsack. I embroider a sample piece to gauge how much of each supply needs to be included, and then assemble 10-50 kits of that design, depending on how much I think people will like it!  The kits are packaged in hand-stamped bakery bags and boxes.

You can find more about her here:

Website: www.takofibers.com
www.maybeemily.com
Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/takofibers
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hellotaco
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlebemle

Our amazing social media sponsor, Banyan Branch, has organized a bunch of different contests for the market throughout the summer.

In addition to a Facebook photo tagging contest (which we’ll talk about soon), they have organized a blogger contest.

Here are the rules: [Right after I wrote that and looked at their sheet to see what the rules are, only to see "there are no rules here, just start blogging and you could win."] Awesome.

Basically any blogger who writes about the Seattle Square will be automatically entered to win a fabulous prize.

Banyan has been monitoring all of the sites and blogs that have been writing about the market so far, and once a month, they will choose a blogger to win a great prize from a local Pioneer Square business. The actual prizes haven’t been announced yet, but I promise — it will be worth it!

For more information on the contest, or to submit your blog for review, email Michelle@banyanbranch.com.